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No negative impact for me. There has been so much original content and moments that are more fleshed out in the show, that it might be one of the few cases where you won't be constantly comparing the book to the show in your head. I never sat down to watch an episode and knew what to expect. There are a few key moments I want to see done in live action, but I think the show has done enough of its own thing to justify existing.

The only thing I've really gotten from reading the book beforehand is context. So when the show starts getting wrapped up in itself, I know that it is (eventually) going somewhere.

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I would definitely recommend reading the book before/alongside the show. They're different enough that the show wouldn't be ruined, but you'd have a lot more context and nuance to the show stuff that seems out of place.

In fact I'm not sure I'd recommend the show to someone who hasn't read the book.

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I'm watching the show with my girlfriend and until this episode I would keep asking "So you still don't know which God Mr Wednesday is?" and she'd keep giving me the response "I genuinely have no idea."

Some people either just don't pick up on visual clues, or aren't as well versed in the mythology I guess.

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People are actually treating the Wednesday reveal as something big and surprising? I mean, it was pretty fucking clear it was Odin from the get go (him being called Wednesday) or at least since episode 2 (Chernabog calling him Wotan). When the reveal was done, I literally thought "Wow. Why go to all that drama to state what we already know?"

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This is such a weird show for non book readers. If I'm honest with my self this show drags to much, pacing is awfully slow for a reason other then them not having enough material, that's what it comes across like.

Yeah, I loved Dead Like Me but this show was just kinda meh, 6/10 for me. Binge watched through the entire season this weekend, wife walked away at episode 2 or 3 (too violent) and I considered stopped at 3 or 4, just way too indulgent and unfocused I felt for a long time.

My favorite part of the show was the penultimate episode that focused on Essie's entire story, just a fascinating little slice of historical life. Unfortunately it had almost nothing to do with gods and really nothing at all to do with the main story, but man I would have loved 8 episode of just stories that touch upon the small ways Gods interact with humanity vs Wednesday and Shadow traveling around being mysterious and moody.

Can't fault the show, can't succeed if you don't try, but it just wasn't that interesting to me. If I do watch season 2, which is a big if, I'd binge it again since watching week to week I think would just drive me nuts with how little the story progresses.

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Ack sorry, sent this right before I was away from the computer awhile and didn't see this post. Yeah, as the poster said right below your response you'd be fine just waiting until talking. It wasn't really menacing spiders, just spiders making silk thread, but I can see how it would affect people that don't like spiders one bit.

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I would guess a healthy majority of people know Odin insofar as he's a Norse God, and maybe what they've seen in the MCU. I doubt many people knew his connection to the day Wednesday or the alternate name Wutan.

Regardless the point of that scene wasn't about shocking US, it was about Shadow. The only thing that bums me out is that it

Banned

I'm in the same boat. Sooooo tempted to read the book, but afraid I'll ruin my enjoyment of the TV show. Maybe I can just read his Norse Gods book to tide me over. That and Tad Williams has another Osten Ard book coming out next week. Still, what do book readers think, has it affected (positively or negatively) your enjoyment of the TV show?

I'm a bit late but wanted to respond. Reading the book probably made the show more enjoyable for me. While so many people seem confused and frustrated by the pacing and lord knows what else, I'm loving it immensely. This show has been amazing to me and I think part of it is from mostly knowing where it goes next, even though there have been enough additions in the show that stop me from feeling like I'm re-hashing the book word for word.

As to my feelings about the show, I guess I summed it up above. I have truly loved each episode and it just gets better and better. I really hope they can keep this up into the next season.

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On episode 4, from the moment Shadow's wife said one word and throughout the rest of the episode I haven't been able to find her likeable and I'm not sure why.

You might say "well at this point you wouldn't find her likeable since you know she cheated on Shadow", OK, but I didn't have an issue with her at all when she was popping up here and there in Shadow's dreams.

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Really only tangentially on-topic but: is Hannibal very similar to this show? I've always planned to catch up with it someday (and then possibly do Pushing Daisies, which I've seen a couple eps of and mostly liked) but I thought this was fucking awful so if there's a lot of overlap I'll just nix it.

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Was really hoping the last episode would have more... subtlety? The cool thing about American Gods was you kind of needed to read between the lines. There weren't Jesus' walking around everywhere (with super distracting halos). It kind of felt silly. The other episodes have done a pretty good job about it.

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I feel like it'll be mid to late summer 2018 by the time S2 drops. Most of the bigger shows nowadays like GoT, Stranger Things, Westworld, etc. take 15+ months before the new season drops. IIRC I saw not long ago they were aiming to start filming in October.

Banned

binge-watched the entire season. The show lost me a little in the middle stretch, but the last two episodes were magnificent. I've read the book, I can tell they're really taking it slow. Not so hot about some of the things they invented for the show, but they've come up good with some new material as well

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She's definitely a divisive character, and I think it comes down to how Emily Browning plays her as so indifferent and non-chalant to everything in her life. That's something people either find obnoxious or kind of entertaining. I think it works best when she's with Sweeney because they play off so well with each other. On her own, Laura's attitude is a bit much sometimes.

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She's definitely a divisive character, and I think it comes down to how Emily Browning plays her as so indifferent and non-chalant to everything in her life. That's something people either find obnoxious or kind of entertaining. I think it works best when she's with Sweeney because they play off so well with each other. On her own, Laura's attitude is a bit much sometimes.

I'm 25 and they never taught us any Norse mythology in school. They barely even covered Greek mythology to be honest. I was pretty familiar with Norse mythology on my own having read about it here and there, but yeah I don't know that it's something that's taught in American schools much. At least where I lived growing up it wasn't.

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Really only tangentially on-topic but: is Hannibal very similar to this show? I've always planned to catch up with it someday (and then possibly do Pushing Daisies, which I've seen a couple eps of and mostly liked) but I thought this was fucking awful so if there's a lot of overlap I'll just nix it.